TimeSplitters: Future Perfect Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Published: Jan 22, 2005

Basics & Weapons

Timesplitters is a basic first-person shooter. While almost anyone can
play the game, it helps if you have a fast reaction time as well as good
hand-eye coordination. Your choice of platform will determine your controls,
but you always have the choice of customising your controls to fit yourself.
By far the best keys to keep close on hand are:

Shoot

Melee attack

Aim Mode

The other functions are important (like grenades) but not always. Cortez
rarely needs to duck, except at critical junctures on Hard or Normal. For
the most part, you can get by with some quick reflexes.

Auto-Aim

For those of you who remember Free Radical's past projects (Goldeneye
and Perfect Dark), you'll have experience with Timesplitters' auto-aim
function. In TS Future Perfect, the "force-aim" isn't as bad as
you've come to know in the aforementioned games, but it does slightly interfere
with your attempt at head shots (which is crucial mid-way through in the
game). Don't be afraid to turn auto-aim on or off at your leisure, since
the option is always available on all platforms.

Crosshairs

The moving crosshairs has been fixed. TS Future Perfect aims
exactly as you'd expect a normal FPS would. If you want the reticule to
move, you have that option in the options menu. Here's a free tip -- don't
do it. Stay fixated.

Life & Armor

First time players to Timesplitters may need to accustom themselves
to the vanishing Life and Armor HUD. The meters only appear when the player
is hit or when the meters are restored (i.e., any additions or subtractions).
The orange meter is the player's health. If that bar is emptied, the player
(or bot) dies. The blue meter is the armor meter. Hits to players when
armor is in effect is deducted from the armor first before life. Both life
and armor may be restored through medical kits and armor pick-ups encountered
in campaign or multiplayer.

IGN Note: If a character is suffering hits, he or she suffers from
impaired movement and may not fire briefly.

Weapons

Across each time zone, Cortez will find different weapons on different
enemies. For example, soldiers in 1924 will have crappier weapons than
the enemies in 2052. Not that all weapons are completely different, but
you should have different expectations when you warp into a new time zone.
Grenades will be slightly different as well. Since only one type of grenade
is available in any one time zone, your grenade switch key will only be
used in multiplayer matches. Detailing all the weapons now is a waste of
time. Instead, each section of the walkthrough will detail the weapons
you'll find. Note that the weapons you use in the story mode are exactly
the same ones you use in multiplayer and vice versa. You can set up a fake
arcade match to test out the weapons in an arena with one idiot bot.

Bot Stats

Each bot in arcade mode has four different attributes it uses when the
option "Character Abilities" is turned on. Apart from the obvious size
of the character's mesh (the big robots are a disadvantage since they are
a larger target), character types in multiplayer have distinctive advantages
and disadvantages.

Speed - Determines how fast that character can move. The average
character moves at four or five bars of speed. Faster characters usually
have a stamina or other weakness, but not always.

Stamina - Determines how tough a character is. This directly affects
hit points and armor. The higher the bar is, the tougher the character
is to take out. Note in the "Odd Man Out" mode (where the one who is 'It'
can score) tough characters can lock down a match.

Shockproof - Determines how vulnerable the character is to the electrotool
and the magcharger. A low score means a magcharger will kill that character
with one hit.

Fireproof - Determines how vulnerable the character is to the flamethrower.
A low score means a character dies quickly once set on fire.

Human - This type includes Cortez, Jo-Beth (gotta luv her),
Anya, Amy, The Jungle Queen, Private Hicks, The General, and Jason Crow.
Humans have middle of the road attributes and are usually a default choice
for most gamers. Humans are the weakest in terms of having immunities.
Some humans, like the Ugenix Guard, is tougher than your average human,
but slower. Keep an eye on the model's stats to predict what you need to
cover while online. Generally, smaller or thinner models are better than
large ones.

Undead - Undead are basically the zombie models you unlock after
completing the 1994 time zone. Undead are usually immune to electricity,
meaning the electrotool and magcharger weapon are useless against them.
Most undead are vulnerable to fire, but one particular zombie mesh (Crispin)
is immune to fire, but vulnerable to shock. Undead have the ability to
stay alive even if their head is destroyed (unless character abilities
are turned off), so to kill them, you may need to use explosives or a prolonged
burst of ammo.

Mechanical - Robots are anything metal. They can be the various
robots from the 2243 time zone, Gretal, and Robot Louis Stevenson. Most
robots are fairly tough and hard to take down. They are also slow and their
body very large, so making them easy to hit. Most bots are also vulnerable
to the electrotool.

Bizarre - Don't forget this is Timesplitters, so keep an eye
on the four stats when selecting bizarre characters like Mr. Handy and
the Gingerbreadman. Biological agents like the monkeys sometimes pull strengths
and weaknesses from a variety of archetypes.